Too Good to Last

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"...I thought Avatar was so good that it was sure to be canceled. It seems a little too deep, a little too intelligent for the kind of cartoon I was used to. So I was really delighted when it found an audience and it showed that parents watch what their kids watch, and that a serious show that dealt with important issues could find an audience."

The observant reader will note that the vast majority of Too Good To Last shows are from the last 15-20 years. This is likely because of the increased emphasis on ratings above all else. On the other hand, the list might be biased toward the past decade because shows like this have an unfortunate tendency to fall off the face of the earth upon cancellation, so our ability to recall and report them is inversely proportional to how long ago they aired.

There's always been an emphasis on ratings in television, but it seems to have become much more pronounced since the early 1990s. It is widely commented upon that Cheers was dead last in the ratings among all regular series in its first season (1982-83), and that a show doing that badly today would almost certainly be canceled within its first month or two. This isn't necessarily a new phenomenon, but some shows only survive by having a network president who is a fan.

Another theory is that the advent of the Internet and the explosion of cable channels has made it harder for these too-soon canceled shows to be forgotten.

For those shows that manage to pull out a few seasons with plenty of network problems before going under, check out the Exception section at the bottom of this page. The main entries are about shows that barely managed to get out a single season, if that. Incidentally, some shows end up canceled only to be Un-Canceled by the network or do a Channel Hop.

Of the exceptions and shows that were Un-Canceled, only a handful were aired on non-cable networks. A series that is Too Good To Last may have better chances on cable than on broadcast networks, in part because cable doesn't demand ratings as high in the first place for the show to be considered a success.

Live Action TV and Western Animation

Cashmere Mafia. Made all the more painful by the fact that the similar, yet inferior, Lipstick Jungle showed up later the same season...and returned for a second season — it too got canceled after that.

Cupid: the ABCdramedy, not the CBS reality show. The remake was too good to last, as well.

The Dana Carvey Show. Apparently too edgy for ABC executives at the time, who canceled it after seven episodes (and an unaired eighth). A very, very good example of a show being ahead of its time... and why you shouldn't lead off your first episode with Bill Clinton breast-feeding puppies.

Defying Gravity (co-developed by ABC, The BBC, CTV and Pro Sieben) had been canceled and its sets destroyed before all the episodes had even been aired. That does not even consider that ABC had all summer to buy and advertise the show, but only purchased the show 3 weeks before the first episode aired.

Dirty Sexy Money, a sharp show that was caught in the crossfire of the 2007 writers' strike.

8 Simple Rules. In spite of John Ritter's untimely death, it still managed to pull in solid ratings (at least compared to the rest of the TGIF lineup), but ABC cancelled it anyways, citing its inability to sell it in syndication as a reason for its cancellation.

Fridays, an early 1980s sketch show that, at the time, was prepped to be Saturday Night Live's replacement as the latter show's quality was in the toilet with its notoriously awful sixth season. Sadly, ABC fell out of love with the show as quickly as they fell in love with it. It was canceled after the network tried to air the show on primetime after moving it from 11:30pm to midnight.

The Greatest American Hero - A short intro season, a full second season, and a third cut in half, with four episodes never even aired until syndication. Was almost uncancelled as "The Greatest American Heroine", but that pilot was turned down.

Huge: Despite being acclaimed as novel and body-positive, it only lasted one short season.

Invasion!: One season only, just when it was getting started. Such a shame...

The Job: Which transmogrified into the more dramatic Rescue Me on the FX Network with much of the same cast.

Land of the Lost (1991): Was very popular when it first aired on ABC, and ran for two seasons. A third season was planned; however, due to Disney's decision to run its own programming after their purchase of ABC, it never saw the light of day.

Life on Mars (US version): The US version of the BBC hit was just finding its own voice and establishing its own mythos when ABC announced that its first season would be its only season.

The Middleman: a hilariously clever spoof on classic pulp super heros. It was canceled after 12 episodes just as they were introducing the series arch-villain and his nefarious plan.

Mighty Orbots: A well animated and stylish Voltron-style cartoon that was canceled in its first season after an ironic lawsuit was filed by the makers of Gobots.

The Mole had two great seasons, then two full Celebrity Edition seasons which brought its first demise. Years later, it was revived and promptly Screwed by the Network, when ABC did such a poor job of promoting it that die-hard fans of the series didn't know it had returned until midway through the season.

The New Odd Couple: Based on Neil Simon's play, specifically a Continuity Reboot of the 1970-75 series, only this time with an African-American cast. While a worthy successor series, an abundance of Recycled Scripts and Ron Glass and Demond Wilson not being Tony Randall and Jack Klugman led the show to fail to find an audience, being canceled after 18 episodes.

The Nine Lives of Chloe King: Though somewhat justified because the company thought it was declining in ratings, but fans tried to petition to bring it back.

Pepper Ann: The terribly clever toon from the original One Saturday Morning lineup.

Police Squad!: The series was supposedly canceled because the viewer had to pay attention in order to appreciate it.

They were also running out of gags.

Prey: Another good show that was canceled after one season and on a cliffhanger.

Pushing Daisies: Its first season earned it 12 Emmy nominations for 9 episodes shown, but the 2007 writer's strike sapped its audience beyond recovery.

Sonic the Hedgehog: Already took a bit of a ratings hit due to Fox scheduling Power Rangers into the same time slot, but the death blow came when a new executive took over ABC and swiftly and abruptly canceled half of its shows - including Sonic, which was about as popular as ever.

The Nine: Like the title invokes, it involves nine people who were stuck inside a bank during a 52-hour robbery. After one episode, it went from a tense Dog Day Afternoon-esque thriller into a slow burning psychological drama. It lost many viewers before the show REALLY started getting warmed up, mostly because of that abrupt Genre Shift.

Traveler: A show about two men on the run, with a smart conspiracy after them, that not only lacked padding, but did not treat the audience like idiots. Ended on a painful cliffhanger that was never resolved.

Arnie: This satirical early-'70s comedy starred Herschel Bernardi as a loading-dock foreman who suddenly and unexpectedly found himself promoted to corporate management. Poor ratings doomed it after two seasons despite critical acclaim.

Bob: Bob Newhart's third sitcom, starring Newhart as a greeting card artist/writer who jumps at the chance when Ace Comics offers to revive a comic book character he created a few decades earlier. The show withered in a bad Friday night timeslot.

Bridget Loves Bernie: This 1972 sitcom about the marriage of a Jewish cabdriver and an upper-class Irish Catholic actually got decent ratings, but CBS canceled it after one season anyway after both Jewish and Catholic groups objected to the premise. (The show did, however, lead to Romance on the Set and eventual marriage between stars David Birney and Meredith Baxter.)

CHAOS: A spy comedy-drama about a small group of loose-cannon CIA agents, which basically tried to be a lighter, more tongue-in-cheek version of gritty modern-day espionage series like Homelandnote which is not to say that it was inspired by Homeland, seeing as it predated it by six months. Only 13 episodes were made, and they were shown out of order by the network.

Citizen Baines: moved slowly for many viewers but had a great cast headed by James Cromwell.

Close to Home was a crime drama based around Annabeth Chase, a criminal prosecutor and showed her trying to balance her work and family life (The first episode is basically Annabeth coming back from maternity leave). The show's two lead characters were both female, something not often seen on CBScrimedramas. The balancing act only got harder after Annabeth's husband was killed in the season 1 finale. The show was cancelled after 2 seasons.

East Side West Side was about a social worker who focused on the problems of the inner city and was probably the first American series to seriously address racism. It managed to win an Emmy, but is largely forgotten today.

The Famous Teddy Z: Created by WKRP's Hugh Wilson, this series starring Jon Cryer and Alex Rocco (who won an Emmy for his character Agent Al Floss) was set in a Hollywood talent agency and was thought in some circles to be too 'inside' to appeal to middle America.

The Flash (1990): Based on the comic book character of the same name, this series got canceled after one season due to being constantly shuffled around in varying time slots and facing tough competition from NBC and FOX on Thursday nights. CBS even tried airing it at 8:30 Eastern Time (it's unusual in the U.S. for an hour-long show to begin on the half-four) to avoid having it on directly against The Cosby Show and The Simpsons, which both aired at 8.

He And She: This 1967 sitcom starring Paula Prentiss and Richard Benjamin received critical acclaim and Emmy awards and is believed to be the precursor of the more "realistic" brand of '70s situation comedies (The Mary Tyler Moore Show, for example). Low ratings doomed it, though, and it only lasted one season.

The Honeymooners: incredibly, only ran one season as a stand-alone sitcom, although the characters admittedly were used for many years on Gleason's variety show.

This one is a bit murky simply because Gleason didn't like the grind of a sitcom, which is the reason why the show ended.

Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures: A massively influential Genre Turning Point for American television animation which directly influenced (and provided talent) to almost every cartoon show made in its wake. It got canceled due to a contrived moral panic involving some crushed flowers which apparently looked a bit too much like cocaine. Most fans of the show claimed that it would've gotten canceled for low ratings anyway.

Moonlight: Several reasons for this, including Friday Night Death Slot. Many fans also feel it was Screwed by the Network, particularly because the final episode was promoted as the season finale (rather than the series finale) and fans were led to believe it would be renewed. Another victim of the 2007 writer's strike.

Now and Again: A well-cast, well-written, well-acted reimagining of the concept of The Six Million Dollar Man. First season featured one of the creepiest and most inexplicable villains ever. Got the Friday Night death slot, and its one and only season did not even air in its entirety until many years later on Sci-Fi.

Project Gee Ke R: Had incredibly good ratings during the time, but only lasted one 13-episode season due to not meeting the educational programming standards set forth by the channel.

The Black Donnellys was doomed from early in its only season after one episode was too violent to even be aired on TV (it was only released on NBC's website) and shortly afterward pulled from its primetime slot and aired as a web series for the rest of its all too brief run.

Boomtown: showed a crime from multiple points of view (the beat cops, the detectives, the paramedic, the D.A., the reporter, and the criminal.) It aired for one season, winning multiple awards. After its first season it was retooled, the uniqueness drained; and it was canceled six episodes into its second season.

Bret Maverick: An '80s attempt to return James Garner to the role he left in a contract dispute in the '50s, this revival show may have been too good to last, but it wasn't too good to repeat - NBC reran episodes of the '81-82 series twice.

The U.S. version of Coupling, though your mileage greatly varies on whether or not it was considered "Too Good To Last," as the reason it was canceled was because it was a watered-down Friends rip-off in comparison to the UK version.

The Downer Channel: Despite being produced by Steve Martin and having Mary Lynn Rajskub and Wanda Sykes in the cast, NBC canned it after four episodes.

Eerie Indiana: Got good enough ratings during the reruns that a Canadian production company produced a sequel/spin-off several years later—which had to star new characters because the original actors for the original characters had aged out of being suitable for the parts.

Freaks and Geeks: Possibly the archetypal example; adored by critics and fans alike, but being shuffled around in the lineup didn't help its ratings, and it got canceled halfway through its first season.

Action - Jay Mohr at his best as an amoral studio executive and the first American TV show to try and make the TV-MA rating suitable for free-to-air TV. Like the movie Showgirls with the NC-17 rating, it was a failure in this endeavor, and the TV-MA rating is now relegated to most basic cable shows and pay-premium cable channels like HBO, Showtime, and porno channels, like The Spice Channel, The Hustler Network, and The Playboy Channel.

The Vision of Escaflowne: The dub anyway. This was FOX's failed attempt to pawn off a fairly mature anime as a kids show (not the first time something like that has happened, but FOX's attempt was the kind of Epic Fail that's relatively well-known). It was pulled off the air after about 10 episodes. It made a full run on YTV in Canada in large part because they aired it in an age-appropriate timeslot.

Although some overseas networks did air all 13 episodes, and unlike many of the shows on this list, it got a DVD release.

Xyber 9 New Dawn: Killed off ten episodes into its 22-episode season, and even then it ended on a cliffhanger.

FX

The WB / UPN / The CW

Animaniacs: to be fair, it had a long and popular run for 6 years, but some of those years featured very infrequent new releases. The show ended just shy of its 100th episode, unless you count its movie Wakko's Wish as its last episode.

Dilbert: Scott Adams (the creator of the famous comic strip the show was based on) often blamed the fact that the UPN screwed the show over by putting it in a timeslot after Shasta McNasty, a show that appealed to a completely different (and, as Adams argued, a less intelligent) audience than Dilberts audience.

Jake 2.0: The first season was cut short, leaving both fans and international distributors irked.

Lazarus Man. Addictive, well-written, genre-busting Western (and mystery/fantasy/horror/romance, likely a few others). Took a hiatus in its first season and was never seen again. (In fairness to the network, the lead actor, Robert Urich, had contracted cancer and was no longer able to work... although he sued the producers for that decision, and in fact did continue to work, becoming a regular in two more series - Love Boat: The Next Wave and Emeril - before he passed away in 2002, six years after The Lazarus Man did.) Died with its boots on.

Nikki & Nora. A closeted lesbian couple who happen to be partnered-up homicide detectives, solving crimes in New Orleans with Derek Morgan as their boss. Made of Win. Made it to a pilot. Still completely frikkin' awesome.

Nowhere Man Not only was it critically praised, it was UPN's highest rated show. They replaced it with Homeboys in Outer Space and Moesha.

On The Spot was a partially improvised sitcom that had only half of a script and was cancelled after 5 episodes, but still has a relatively strong internet following, and the episodes can be found on YouTube. 230,000 people can't be wrong.

Phantom Investigators: Thirteen episodes were produced, and after the first season, Sony decided to stop funding animated shows. While this made the chance of a second season unlikely, the final nail in the coffin was Kids WB cancelling the show due to scoring higher with female viewers instead of male viewers, making the channel nervous about losing their status as the number-one rated block with young boys, despite the fact that the show was outperforming everything else in it's timeslot.

Related

Road Rovers: Was canceled due to low ratings, though popular opinion is that the censors discovered a dirty joke in the last episode during Exile's song about Russian names and shut down production. It could be both reasons, though the joke (which was edited in reruns) was possibly a parting "Up yours!" for how badly the network screwed it over.

Contrary to popular belief, it was canceled due to low ratings, not that the Black Comedy helped any however.

The low ratings were likely a result of Executive Meddling. The show didn't have a consistent time slot (much like another sci-fi cartoon which coincidentally featured Zim's original voice actor Billy West). New episode releases were also inconsistent.

In addition, Invader Zim was a very expensive show to make, meaning it would require either a major merchandise push (unlikely, considering the show was run by an underground comic book writer) or stellar ratings to remain profitable.

Victorious was a major subversion of this-at some point in season 2 (not long before Locked Up! aired), there were people on Twitter who believed the show was going to be completely pulled because of its hatedom, but it managed to escape that.

Alas, was cancelled before it had a chance to do a proper series sendoff.

The Adventures of Pete & Pete Like the broadcast examples above, it only lasted as long (3 seasons) due to its critical acclaim, but poor ratings, executive shuffling, and a show that didn't quite mesh with the little-kid demo helped kill the show far too soon, according to various bits of the DVD commentaries.

The Mighty B!: The series gained high ratings and good reviews throughout 2008 and early 2009, but around the time season two began ratings began to drop until new episodes stopped airing on the main network. The final episodes began airing on sister network, Nicktoons, from 2010 to 2011.

American Dragon: Jake Long: After only 2 seasons, Disney decided to cancel it, despite the ratings being fine and there being plenty of story lines for at least one more season.

PB&J Otter: Jumbo pictures got into an argument with Disney shortly after the third season was produced. They then cut off all ties with Disney and production of this, along with various other Disney programming, stopped.

My Little Pony Tales: Only one season, due to poor reception as the Slice of Life format was very new and visionary when the show premièred. It has since obtained a cult following.

As stated on ABC, W.I.T.C.H. suffered a similar fate to other Disney animated action/adventure shows, ending after two seasons and with a massive hint at a third season to boot. The reason, according to this FAQ from tv.com, is there was "little to no interest both from the investors’ and the producers side" to continue the series. Coincidentally, Greg Weisman was brought on board for the second season which was widely regarded as an improvement over the first. Check the man's page to see how the network hasregularlytreated him like a two dollar call girl.

The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes!: The original order consisted of two seasons, with a total of 52 episodes. As the show progressed, it became evident that the writers had already started planning a third season. However, Disney XD ended up ordering a whole new Avengerscartoon instead of more episodes. The fact that EMH received better ratings among adults than among children made Disney XD think that it didn't appeal to their target demographic.

TRON: Uprising. Althought Disney never confirmed the cancelation, the last episode of the first season aired in 2013 without news since despite mostly positive reception.

Motorcity was continuously praised for its high quality animation, dynamic story, and interesting characters but a bad case of Screwed by the Network (including shifting the time slot, messing up the order of the episodes, and a lack of advertisements) led to the series being offed before its first season even wrapped up. However, the people behind the show prepared for this and were able to give the story a proper ending.

The Life and Times of Juniper Lee: Heavily screwed by CN with a bouncing timeslot and neglect of advertising. Ironically as a rival of American Dragon, both shows wound up suffering the same problems from their respective networks.

Time Squad: Surprisingly, it wasn't canceled because someone complained about the rampant Ho Yay and innuendo that flew past the radar. In fact, there isn't a definite story about why it was canceled. One story goes that Dave Wasson (the show creator) had a falling-out with his storyboard crew and the tensions threw production in a loop. Another story is the common "the show got low ratings, its timeslot kept getting shuffled [though, considering its content, airing it at 10pm before [adult swim]is a good idea], and it didn't get the audience that the other Cartoon Cartoon shows got" story, which is the more believable of the two stories.

Moral Orel : Sadly cancelled after only 3 seasons because it got too dark and depressing (which is what Adult Swim wanted). The only claymation able to make you cry.

The FUNimation dubbed edit of One Piece, aired after the 4Kids dub ended its run. Though this was due to Toonami going under at the time thanks to new management. The series is now back on the air as of this writing thanks to the revived Toonami block.

Unnatural History, the first Live Action show on Cartoon Network that was good. However it was because it was on a network centered around cartoons was the reason this happened. The fact it was coming on the heels of the CN Real era didn't help matters.

Tower Prep: Another Live-action TV show that was too good to last. Same reason as Unnatural History. Good premise, just not the right network for it.

Now Robotomy has been cancelled, due to high production costs, lack of interest from foreign markets, and the simple fact that the show plays out more like an actual [adult swim] cartoon rather than a Cartoon Network show that airs before Adult Swim.

Young Justice has been canceled after two successful seasons. Rumor has it that it's because it attracted the wrong kind of audience: while it was popular with adults and female viewers, it didn't attract the 6-11 year old male crowd the executives wanted to court (out of a dated belief that they're the only ones that would buy toys).

Green Lantern: The Animated Series. See Young Justice, the answer's pretty much the same, especially since the toyline for the live action Green Lantern movie did poorly.

Korgoth of Barbaria never got beyond the pilot episode, despite being hyped by the network and receiving a positive fan response.

Incredible Crew: A last lingering attempt to air live action on CN. But you know what? This one was actually funny and had gained a small but dedicated fanbase (having the voice of Finn as one of the cast certainly helped). Alas only one season before getting the chop.

Code Monkeys: Arguably the best show G4TV ever had, and they didn't sink for a third season.

Portal: Not canceled due to ratings, as the creator was not shy about letting fans know, but rather due to personal differences between himself and the network head.

Hurl: Yes the name is pretty much what you think it is, a game show about people trying their darnest to keep from puking while being spun around. It was made on the cheap and it showed, but it was still fun watching.

Arena, a show about competitive gaming before competitive gaming had much of a presence outside of the internet. The original hosts (one of which being Wil Wheaton) quit due to being unhappy with the way the producer ran things, and then the show was cancelled after its third season ended in January 2005.

BBC

The Tripods was epic science fiction with astonishing production values. They filmed the first 2 parts of John Christopher's trilogy, but the last book never made it to the screen. Its demise was blamed on it being very slowly paced, plus it was scheduled on Saturdays opposite The A-Team...

Star Cops Intelligent, critically-lauded British sci-fi/cop show crossover about police on the moon, canned after one series (and a lot of in-fighting) despite the first series finale setting up a new season on Mars.

Outcasts ended on such a tantalizing cliffhanger - and was then cancelled by the BBC due to poor ratings. Unless some other sci-fi channel renews it, it's unlikely we'll see another season.

15 Storeys High. The BBC really messed about with this series, putting it on a graveyard slot. Then allegedly told Sean Lock he couldn't do a third series.

Doctor Who TVM "The TV Movie" was intended to launch a revived series of Doctor Who. It got really good audience ratings in the UK, but because it was an American co-production with Fox, and because it bombed in the US, plans to bring back Doctor Who were shelved for years.

Mission Genesis (known as Deepwater Black in Canada where it originated.) Teen drama plays out with SF themes in the foreground on their way back to earth. Very intelligent, containing a few actors who would go on to fame in other sci fiseries. Canceled after 13 episodes.

The Invisible Man ran for two seasons, then was cancelled "due to cost issues and internal bickering."

Caprica: The network's official statement says it all: “Unfortunately, despite its obvious quality, ‘Caprica’ has not been able to build the audience necessary to justify a second season.” To add insult to injury, the cast and crew have been very clear that (a) the first season finale, which was filmed before the cancellation report, contains multiple cliff-hangers and would not make a satisfying end to the series, and (b) the second season has been planned out in more detail than any BSG season was, and it's a really good plan.

Stargate Universe was canceled mid-season, with cast and crew only hearing it from their fans on Twitter. Although the show had divided the Stargate fandom, there's no denying that the show had quality and brilliant acting behind it (ROBERT FREAKIN' CARLYLE!!) - even the haters had started to agree that season 2 was good. Plus, as the series had been planned out to last five seasons, it'll almost certainly end on a massive cliffhanger leaving almost all the main plot arcs unresolved. Thank you so much SyFy!

Farscape: An extremely clever if dark Sci fi with The Muppets - literally, as it was produced by Jim Henson! Unfortunately, much like Firefly the Network had a hard time understanding its brilliance. It was moved around constantly and was eventually Screwed by the Network after its fourth season — despite having been promised a fifth — and ended on a cliffhanger.

Farscape only received a conclusion due to a massive outpouring of fan support after its cancellation.

The Dresden Files: based on the book series by the same name. Although the TV series was very different from its literary inspiration and not very well received by fans of the novels it was charming and clever and had lots of potential. But before it had much of a change to prove itself it was canceled midway through it first season.

Tremors: Got decent ratings despite its lack of advertisement compared to other shows and having its episodes aired badly Out of Order, Sci-fi pulled the plug anyways.

Alphas: A neat X-Men type series, with some interesting superpowers and character dynamics. Cancelled after one season with what should have been a brilliant Cliffhanger, but instead was a Downer Ending.

Showtime

Dead Like Me: Not even quirk-friendly cable was friendly enough, alas.

afterlife, a paranormal thriller show starring Lesley Sharp as a mentally unstable, withdrawn medium. It was released to critical acclaim, but later got the axe because it wasn't drawing in as many viewers as its previous seasons had. It ended on a cliffhanger.

Beat The Cyborgs. There was nothing wrong with this kid's game show. In fact, it was really good and quite well received, and a second series was promised. It just... never came. There was no explanation as to why, and now, seven years down the line, the programme's fallen off the edge of the earth to the point where there are no online clips at all and it is never repeated.

CITV later stopped all commissions of original material (which killed off My Parents Are Aliens), and Mark Speight, who was the presenter known as the Borgmaster, has died. Definitely no chance of a revival now.

Remember WENN: Ran 3 seasons on AMC before that network changed its format. To add insult to injury, it ended on a Cliffhanger.

Rubicon: One season, also ending on a cliffhanger. Notable because it's the first of AMC's Original Series to be canceled.

Pro Sieben

Stromberg, a German comedy show extremely similar to The Office, got recommissioned for several series, even though it was never a success. Still, they've got a large cult-fanbase.

CBC

Da Vinci's City Hall: A Sequel Series to Da Vinci's Inquest (one of the highest-rated and most critically-acclaimed series to ever air in the network's history), City Hall moved the title character (and former coroner) Dominic Da Vinci from the medical office to the political field. The show was critically acclaimed (and unusually continuity-heavy) - critics and some viewers loved it, but others tuned out, and the network dumped it after a single season (with many loose ends still remaining).

Intelligence (2006), made by the creator of Da Vinci's Inquest, won a Gemini Award for Best Dramatic Series during its debut season, then got unceremoniously canned at the end of its second season. Supposedly, CBC killed it for political reasons.

This Is Wonderland lasted three seasons, but got no promotion and wildly varying timeslots by the network, and got canned with plot threads Left Hanging.

Teletoon

Cybersix (Teletoon) was a brilliant series with lots of action, fun characters, and surprisingly mature content (among other things, episodes alluded to the death of a child and Nazism). It was very well received and even won an award, "Special Mention for the Best Science Fiction Program". Yet it only got one season of thirteen episodes.

Comedy Central

The Critic: Ran reruns, with the promise of new episodes. Never happened.

TV Funhouse - Only ran one season with eight episodes. The reason behind its cancellation was because Comedy Central was disappointed at how each episode went over budget.

Drawn Together was cancelled because of the cost to produce it was too high and that Comedy Central wasn't making much profit. They took a break half way through season 3, making fans believe that the second half was the fourth season. The show has a very loyal fanbase and a cult following.

The Jeselnik Offensive earned some pretty positive reviews and was noted for Anthony Jeselnik's mostly enjoyable usage of dark humor. However, ratings were low, and despite Jeselnik's assurances that its production costs were low enough to keep it afloat, the show was axed after 2 seasons.

Veronica

Not so much a show, but rather a channel itself devoted to cancelled shows. The Dutch channel Veronica pretty much runs on this stuff. The average plot: 1.) Show is announced with a lot of fanfare. The same teaser is shown over and over again. 2.) Show airs, some people get hooked. 3.) Show disappears without a warning. 4.) People check out the series online and learn that it only ran for a couple of episodes before getting cancelled. This goes for most sci-fi/action dramas listed above. There is a clue though, every time they first announce the show with the teasers, the show will be referred to as 'The hit series <insert showname>'. Latest victim: Flash Forward.

SheZow starred a Wholesome Crossdresser superhero. Despite high ratings, it never made it past it's first season despite plans for a second.

Whole Television Channels

Z Channel, a pioneering cable television channel showing classic movies, basically a precursor to both AMC and Turner Classic Movies. It championed many of the same things that cinephiles did (and later the aforementioned Turner Classic Movies): Letterboxing, showing films that otherwise wouldn't appear on other networks, director's cuts of films, and so on. It lasted a decent amount of time, 1974 to 1989, but its last few years are rife with Executive Meddling and Network Decay. Xan Cassavetes, daughter of film director John Cassavetes, made an acclaimed documentary about the channel's heydey, Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession in 2004.

Nickelodeon's Nick Gas channel, which broadcast Nick's 90's game shows. It was discontinued and replaced with The N in 2007.

New Zealand-based public service broadcaster TVNZ 7 will go off the air in mid-2012, after it was announced its funding would not be renewed.

Worldwide Animax channels, being Japan, Asia Pacific, Germanynote Only aired on Germany, Austria and Switzerland. and UKnote As a streaming media like Netflix or Crackle. signals the only ones that still exist until today. After the expansion outside Japan in 2004, Sony Pictures Television Networks started to add western content gradually and later replace Animax channels with new ones in later years, to finally ending with almost all channels during The New '10s. The most dramatic cases were Africa and Latin America signals, which apart of being filled with western content, after their death were installed new channels with the same content (Sony MAX and Sony Spin, respectively) which were cancelled few years later by low ratings.

Other Media

Anime / Manga / Comics

This is the general belief of fans from both the OVA and Decode series of Birdy the Mighty. The OVA series only had four parts and the Decode series two seasons and both series still had many loose ends when they ended.

The Bubblegum Crisis OVA series, stopped after episode 8 due to disputes between the companies producing the show.

Cyber City Oedo 808 was intended as a demo to impress potential investors; had the investors been impressed, they would have expanded out the three one-hour episodes into a full length series... in 1993. Needless to say, the investors were not impressed.

Mobile Suit Gundam got poor ratings in its original run and it was canceled, cutting down the amount of episodes from 52 to 39 and forcing Tomino had to quickly improvise an ending. However, due to good re-run ratings the show was re-cut (with some new animation) into 3 movies, and Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam was made.

Aoi Hana was supposed to get a second season, but those plans were canceled when the DVD sales for the first season turned out to be disappointing.

Barrage, canceled after 2 volumes despite a promising start. It's often used by anime and manga fans as an example of the cutthroat environment of the manga business, particularly its requirement for a series to hit the ground running, that a well-liked series like Barrage could not find a general enough audience to last. All was not lost for author and illustrator Kouhei Horikoshi though, as his next attempt, My Hero Academia, became the big hit of 2014 and got an anime adaptation beginning in 2016.

Double Arts was an engrossing and fun manga that thumbed its nose at loads of the problematic stereotypes of its genre in wonderful ways and was obviously gearing up for an Ancient Conspiracy plot...and was cut down in its infancy by low ratings, with barely enough time for the artist to sketch out an ending with a little closure. An example of Screwed by the Demographic — Double Arts was a more trope-defying Shonen series in a magazine that usually aims for the 12-18 demographic.

Futaba-kun Change!: Cancelled just as it was setting up some major story arcs, leading to the creator scrambling to wrap everything up for the ending due to time constraints. We can't help wondering if the ending would have made more sense if it'd been given enough time to play out naturally.

Gun Blaze West: The series begun by Watsuki Nobuhiro just after Rurouni Kenshin finished. It only lasted long enough for two or three volumes worth of material.

Hakaima Sadamitsu, a little-known but ridiculously awesome seinen. Started as a manga in 1999, got an anime adaptation in 2001 that was cancelled after ten episodes. The Other Wiki says the manga is still going.

Hikari no Densetsu is based on a best-selling manga, was produced by a highly talented staff and has had more than its share of positive reviews, yet it was a huge bomb on Japanese TV and was yanked off the air after only 19 episodes. The anime was a success in Europe, though.

Kanamemo, which ended having a Sequel Hook, never got its second season simply due to surprisingly poor DVD sales.

Meister was primed to be the hot new sports manga with dynamic characters and stimulating art. Cut from Weekly Shonen Jump two months after it debuted, forced to cobble together a sudden (and not particularly lucid) ending. Only ten chapters. They didn't even get through one goddamn soccer game.

The original Shaman King manga was canceled RIGHT BEFORE the showdown with the Big Bad. It would be Uncanceled and finished several years later.

"Zombiepowder.'': Word of God says that the creator was going through some severe anxiety and depression during its run which was one of the main reasons for its cancellation.

Raijin Comics in the U.S. A weekly anthology series made up of Baki the Grappler, Fist of the Blue Sky, and attempting to bring in political and horror mangas? Hell yes! Only for it to end monthly within not even two years and then canceled.

Rion 2990 was an independent manga-esque comic released in the 1980's and published under the Mirage imprint. Unlike other manga-esque titles, Rion looked absolutely authentic in regards to its visuals that it could be mistaken as an actual Japanese manga. In addition to that, it had a high stakes, cold war era plot about a struggle between war and peace with likable characters. It was proposed to be a 4-issue miniseries, but it got cut short and only two of the four issues were released due to Mirage ballooning and crashing.

Aztek had a fresh hero, good crossover potential and a promising overarcing plot. Then it ran right into the 1996-97 comic book market crash and got cancelled after 10 issues. Luckily, Aztek had already been set up to join the Justice League of America, and his story line got resolved in that book.

The Batman Adventures (the second volume): a comic written by Ty Templeton and Dan Slott as a sequel to Batman: The Animated Series that did its best to tie in with the DCAU. It was very sadly killed after only 17 issues to be replaced with a The Batman tie-in comic, leaving all of the plotlines (sadly the creative team planned on to at least 40 issues, some details on the Toonzone boards) except for the ones that they scrambled to cover in the last four issues dangling.

Captain Britain and MI13 was canceled after issue 15, thought it would be hard to see how they could top Dracula and his vampire army's invasion from his castle on the moon.

The Crew, a Marvel Comics series with a heavy African-American cast, was cancelled before its first issue was released. Only seven issues were ultimately released and its creator, Christopher Priest, is still somewhat bitter over it, believing that it was cancelled because Marvel thought it was a "ghetto book".

Jack Kirby's 1970s DC work is notorious for this. Pretty much every single thing he wrote was massively innovative and critically acclaimed, from the Fourth World Saga to the proto-cyberpunk O.M.A.C., and almost none of it lasted. Mr. Miracle, the longest-lasting Fourth World book, made it eighteen issues, The Demon lasted sixteen, his run on Jimmy Olsen got fifteen, New Gods and Forever People eleven, and OMAC just eight. A mix of the DC Implosion and rather poor sales wreaked havoc on his comics, leaving only historians desperately wishing for a proper conclusion to the threads he set up. Ironically, Kamandi (among the least well-regarded of Kirby's 70s works) was the only one to make it to a respectable length (thirty-seven issues, with an additional twenty-two by other writers).

DC Comics' Red Circle books, The Shield and The Web, had some great promise, but were both cancelled after just ten issues EACH!

Spider-Gwen was canceled after a mere five issues. However, this is a strange case. The book came about due to the unprecedented popularity of the character in the Spider-Verse event. But it was just too late to fully incorporate into the already planned Secret Wars (2015) event. Consequently, the book had to be cancelled, but the character was quickly brought over to the new ongoing Spider-Verse title that came about as a result of the Secret Wars event and will be relaunched as part of the All-New, All-Different Marvel.

2010's Thor: The Mighty Avenger sadly only goes half-in on this trope. Although there was a good deal of complaining about its cancellation, it didn't ever manage to break 10k in issue sales which would seem to make its cancellation by Marvel reasonable from a business standpoint.

Although Voices had a good run (with exciting action, well-made drama and a unique Interactive Comics gimmick that gave the series its name), it only lasted one and a half chapters due to pressure from Real Life on the author, which massively stifled the update rate.

2016's X Men 92 was an adoring love letter to both the 90s era X-Men and the wildly popular animated series from that time. It used (and used well) characters that were utterly wasted in their original incarnations, promised to elevate more◊, and was met with almost universally positive reviews. So of course it was only given a 10-issue run, forcing authors Chris Sims and Chad Bower to condense promising plots and kill off characters early for the sake of wrapping everything up by the tenth issue.

Games

Although not a television show, Battlefleet Gothic had only a few months of publicity and attention before being handed over to Specialist Games (then Fanatic Press), a fate shared with many other spinoff games.

Also similar to these, Beyond Good and Evil. But although this beautiful masterpiece didn't sell that well, it will get a sequel.

Advent Rising, featuring a story written by science fiction god Orson Scott Card. The game was planned from the get-go to be a trilogy, but like Psychonauts, was pushed out the door too quickly by Majesco (who was facing bankruptcy at the time). The result was a unpolished and glitchy (albeit still playable) game. When given just a month to polish it for the rerelease of the game on PC, the average ratings jumped a considerable amount. The game ended on the definition of a cliffhanger, and the original team (who have long since left Majesco, and were recently bought by Epic) has expressed interest in finishing the trilogy, but Majesco won't release the rights to them. They're too busy with Cooking Mama I guess...

And who could forget the terrible marketing ploy they used to sell copies of their unfinished game. The main selling point of the game was an in-game contest where players had to find a symbol in one of the levels. Whoever found the symbol first and submitted undeniable proof to the developers would win a large sum of money. Cue a crafty player finding the symbol, sending the proof, then having the developers back out.

Working Designs. They were mostly known for their excellent localizations of the Lunar series.

Panzer Dragoon started life as a rail shooter on the Sega Saturn and was successful enough to get a direct sequel, and then a spin-off RPG that was acclaimed but sold poorly. After returning to its rail shooter roots with Panzer Dragoon Orta on the Xbox the series died due to poor sales, despite receiving lots of acclaim from critics and fans alike.

The prices of Saga alone should show you how much people love these games.

Phantom Brave is a truly remarkable game developed by Nippon Ichi (the people behind Disgaea series). Even though two remakes have been remade for the game on both Wii and PSP, the game has yet to make a sequel.

Legacy of Kain. Despite setting a new standard for thought-provoking plots and dialogue, these successes meant gameplay was traded off and resulted in the series' silent downfall, with the most recent game, 2003's Defiance, selling below expectations and without real resolution, and a potential sequel, The Dark Prophecy, quickly became Vaporware. Adding the fact that the head writer for the series is now working for Naughty Dog and the voice of the series' Big Bad is dead, and you can tell they're not going to put out another game any time soon.

Conker's Bad Fur Day: It was going to have a sequel, but after Rare being bought out by Microsoft and some Executive Meddling the game was instead just re-made with better graphics...and censored.

A console example, the infamous Sega Dreamcast. Same could be said for most of Sega's systems.

ActRaiser. The sequel removed the simulation gameplay, and needless to say flopped.

The Ogre Battle series was intended to be a seven-episode game series, but only episodes V, VII, and VI (released in that order) were made. Yasumi Matsuno, the series' creator, left Quest during the development of Ogre Battle 64 to work for Squaresoft, where he worked on Final Fantasy Tactics. Even after Square Enix purchased Quest, he refused to work on any Ogre Battle, choosing to concentrate on the so-called "Ivalice series". Now that Matsuno left Square Enix, it seems unlikely we'll ever see any of the first five Ogre Battle episodes. It might be on its way to revival, however, with the announcement of a remake of Tactics Ogre headed by Yasumi Matsuno himself. Keep your fingers crossed!

Eternal Darkness, while no official word has stated the sequels won't come, isn't actively in production, which probably means we'll never see it. The developers are much more interested in continuing the lackluster Too Human. Penny Arcade even wrote a comic about it.

The Last Express was adored by critics and many players, but a complete lack of advertising and a limited distribution by the dying Broderbund company made it a huge commercial flop. What made it worse is that the game's story sets things up for a sequel at the end, with Cath presumably on his way to Jerusalem to get a look at a mysterious manuscript. Though Interplay re-released it for a brief period before going bankrupt, and Gametap now has it available, it is highly unlikely anyone will ever make a sequel.

Not to mention the fact that it was one of the few good games, at the time, to feature multiple endings.

Humongous Entertainment constantly received critical acclaim in its day, but with 2D and the Adventure Game markets slowly dying out, the company was eventually forced to shut down. Atari now owns the rights, but have failed to make a decent game since.

The System Shock series. Both were commercial failures but were critically acclaimed and System Shock 2 in particular is widely regarded as one of the greatest FP Ses in history.

System Shock 3 was announced at the end of 2015, but only time will tell if this new game can revive the series.

Anachronox ended with a huge cliffhanger that thanks to producer ION Storm imploding will never get resolved.

Baten Kaitos was an unusual RPG series on the Gamecube, featuring a World in the Sky populated by Winged Humanoids. Neither of the games sold particularly well, but over the years, they've gained a small fanbase. A third game was planned, but cancelled due to poor sales and lack of interest.

There are rumors that a third game might be in the works, though...

The developers of Split Second had clearly intended for there to be a sequel, given the way they decided to close out the single-player season mode. The game had already left its mark as a unique racing game experience but Disney Interactive Studios had other plans and kiboshed the sequel and then ended up closing the studio.

DJ Hero was a unique and fun Rhythm Game with an awesome original soundtrack (every song in both games is an original remix of licensed music, with the vast majority splicing two songs together) that ended up flopping due to coming out at a time when the music game fad was on the way out. Despite getting an Even Better Sequel, it still wasn't enough, and the series wasn't profitable enough to continue its development.

Disney Infinity was Disney's answer to Skylanders and featured various Disney, Marvel, and Star Wars themed characters to use in special games (called Play Sets) along with a surprisingly well-done Level Editor called the Toy Box. The series was a resounding success and proved popular with both kids and adults and teens. Sadly, consistently keeping the series and figures rolling wound up being too expensive of an endeavor for Disney Interactive to take. The series wound up coming to an (arguably premature) end in June 2016, to much disappointment.

Literature

The fabulous teen series DRAMA! never had more than a miniscule yet devoted fanbase, so Simon & Schuster decided to stop publishing it after just four books. Fortunately, they gave Paul Ruditis the bad news before he started the fourth book, so he was able to speed up some story arcs to give his characters the ending they deserved.

Blind Faith. Meaningfully named by the band members in response to fan hype. They knew it wouldn't last, from the beginning.

Blodwyn Pig; British blues group featuring ex-Jethro Tull guitarist Mick Abrahams. Their first album did real well, but a supposedly lackluster second album, along with the pressures of the music industry, led main songwriter Abrahams to leave, effectively crippling the group.

David Bowie's album 1.Outside was supposed to be the first of a trilogy. Unfortunately, Bowie decided to cancel the other two parts.

If this is unfortunate depends on wether or not you believe that the other two parts could have lived up to the expectations...

Catherine Wheel

Chagall Guevara

Chickenfoot possibly with drummer Chad Smith returning exclusively to The Red Hot Chili Peppers and guitarist Joe Satriani most likely going back to the studio for another solo album.

A second album was released in the fall of 2011, so it appears that Chickenfoot will be a part-time thing. And Chad and Joe are still in the band.

Colonel Claypool's Bucket of Bernie Brains

Crucial Three. It tells something when a band that only existed for about six weeks and never recorded a song or at least performed in public in that time still gets a wikipedia and an allmusic entry.

They get their own pages mostly because of the important post-punk acts founded in its wake, bassist Julian Cope's Teardrop Explodes, guitarist Pete Wylie's Wah!, and vocalist Ian Mc Culloch's Echo and the Bunnymen.

The Monks: A noisy, psychedelic garage rock band who played in Germany at the same time The Beatles did. They recorded one album in 1966 which foreshadowed the rise of noise-rock and punk, then broke up. (They reunited and recorded a live album in the 90s, after one of the original members had died.)

The Normal are best known for the creepy, ahead-of-its-time, oft-covered and anthologized proto-synth pop song "Warm Leatherette". Unfortunately, if you really like that song, there's only one other Normal song, "TVOD", which was originally its A-side. There's also The Silicon Teens, who, like The Normal, are an alias for Daniel Miller, and put out one album consisting of intentionally synthesizer-heavy oldies covers with a few originals mixed in. Beyond that, Miller has primarily stuck with producing, remixing, and occasionally being credited for synthesizer or programming on other people's albums.

Omaha Sheriff. In spite of copious amounts of talent, somereallyquiteexcellentsongs, some airplay on American radio and a big boost from famous producer Tony Visconti, they managed to record only two albums in their lifetime, only one of which was ever released. The release of their album Come Hell or Waters High at the same time as the punk explosion was devastatingly ill-timed. None of their music has been released on CD.

Bill Nelson's Red Noise, a fun and inventive New Wave group that lasted for one album and a few singles before Nelson went on to lead a successful solo career.

The Sex Pistols, who popularized punk rock, only managed to record a single album (on which the band's best-known member didn't even play a single note) before collapsing under their own self-loathing. Sure, they've toured on and off since 1996, but they've never gotten around to recording any new material in all that time.

Sleep released 2 albums, the second considered a classic of the Stoner Rock genre. their third album was a single hour long track that the label decided was unmarketable, they were dropped from the label and shortly after decided it was time to call it quits. the member's seperate projects since then make you wonder what could have been. (had they continued together, the album was finally given a proper release 7 years later)

The Smiths

Stone Roses

The Traveling Wilburys. Roy Orbison's death probably didn't help... not to mention of course they were all superstars to begin with.

Uncle Tupelo, although their breakup spawned a couple of bands (Wilco, Son Volt) that were pretty damn great in their own right.

The Unicorns

Urusei Yatsura (UK band), a little-known but critically-acclaimed indie band in the 90s (not to be confused with the anime however) that fizzled out after only three damn good albums.

In 1995, Capcom (yes, the same Capcom that makes Mega Man and Street Fighter games) decided to enter the pinball business. During that time, they produced what pinball fans consider to be some of the greatest pinball machines ever made and never produced anything short of a critical darling. In addition, their usage of non-proprietary parts made repair easier and less costly than the Williams, Bally, and Gottlieb machines of its time. The problems were that Capcom never figured out how to market its pinball quite as well as the other companies, nor could they produce large numbers of any of them. As a result of few people knowing these machines existed and very low production numbers (most were in the single digits) Capcom left the pinball business in 1997. Every machine Capcom made is now highly sought after, and chances to play them are incredibly rare.

Professional Wrestling

One of the first great successes of pro wrestling, the territorial system, ultimately proved to be such, because even with the vast benefits that came from working together and the governing bodies such as the National Wrestling Alliance put in place to facilitate cooperation, individual promoters never really did get along or trust one another for the most part.

A promotion with the financial backing of Ted Turner and many of the greatest wrestlers of all time. Unfortunately, half of WCW's wrestlers were a combination of foreigners and cruiserweights whom booking had little interest in. Turner hired many men who knew little about the business and thus squandered the drawing power of Ric Flair and fell from what should have been the oldest tricks in the book from the likes of Honky Tonk Man and especially Hulk Hogan. Then Turner's company was bought out by one full of people who didn't just lack understanding of pro wrestling but hated it.

A television show built around promising prospects from the independent circuit and established stars from established promotions AAA and Dragon Gate. A show ran by executives more interested in stunts and explosions than pro wrestling who proved too squeamish when those very stunts were taken to their logical conclusion.

Radio

The Stan Freberg Show was canceled by the CBS radio network after running for only 15 episodes, due to failure to attract a sponsor. Stan Freberg took favorite sketch requests a week before the final episode to thank fans for their enthusiasm for the show. Thank goodness all the episodes survive.

Australian comedian Tony Martin's Get This was a massively clever and energetic show that mocked a lot of radio conventions. Because of this it was axed despite being not only network Triple M's top rating show, but also the ONLY show rating vaguely well. Note it continued to be the top-rating show in spite of undergoing three timeslot shifts.

Sport

The Formula One race track in Istanbul, introduced in 2005, was called "the best race track in the world" by Bernie Ecclestone (President and CEO of Formula One Management). It got pushed off the calendar for the 2012 season, meaning it only ever hosted six Grand Prix.

The Group B era of rallying, a brief period in The '80s when WRC was more popular than Formula One. It produced some of the fastest, most iconic rally cars of all time, but inadequate crowd management and pure power in these cars led to several fatalities, and FIA cancelled the class in favour of the more strictly regulated Group A.

Toys

XEVOZ and its tie-in comic. The toyline from Hasbro (with aid from Stikfas) was made up of figures with interchangeable parts and weapons, and a collectible card like game, using the figures themselves and "Battle Helix" dice. It only lasted for four series of figures, but that's two more than it seemed the line would support. After seemingly being cancelled after Series 2, and again after Series 3 (plus some deluxe sets), Xevoz finally disappeared for good (for now).

Hornby's Were Bears were discontinued after 1989 despite them being very well made and original toys. They have become very sought after and collectable toys since then. A few new websites hint that they may be being made once again and might even have a movie or cartoon series made after them.

Transformers: The Alternators were Hasbro's finally giving the adult Periphery Demographic what they had been begging for since the 80s: big, complex, show accurate "collector" toys. Adult fans loved it, but it turns out they didn't make up as much of the audience/buyers as they thought and the Alternators didn't sell well enough to continue. The Alternators continue to rack up impressive sums of money on eBay, though, and they are pretty sweet.

My Scene dolls, had a small but devoted fandom. Now it's not even didtributed out of South America.

Video

The Film Crew, a Spiritual Successor to Mystery Science Theater 3000 helmed by Mike Nelson, Bill Corbett, and Kevin Murphy. The four episodes available on Amazon are the only four there were and are likely to ever be. Fortunately, their second attempt at a spiritual revival of MST3K, RiffTrax, seems to have been a hit.

Shows that were rescued (Exceptions)

Angel: While the show ran long enough and the finale was appropriate enough to make it feel like a show that naturally ended, a sixth season was planned but cancelled. Joss Whedon was broken up about it.

Arrested Development, although this show managed at least 3 seasons, about 2 1/2 more than most of the others on this list, it still stung because of the massive positive critical response and awards won.

Danny Phantom (Nickelodeon): Creator Butch Hartman expressed interest in continuing the series but Nickelodeon wouldn't have it. At least he still managed to give it a Grand Finale, despite the third season only being about half as long as the other two.

Dark Angel. Fox show. Only an exception in the sense of having had two seasons, otherwise characterized by everything it says at the top. Third season greenlit and then abruptly cancelled.

Daria: After the end of the series' 5th season, MTV gave Glenn Eichler an option: a 6-episode 6th season or another Made-for-TV Movie. Eichler, running out of ideas, choose the movie, and the series ended with Is It College Yet?

Two DCU examples: Both Blue Beetle and Manhunter, which had been on the very brink of cancellation for their entire runs, were recently canceled at just under 50 issues, managing to wrap up their storylines in a satisfying way. In that time, Manhunter was canceled and revived twice. Both returned as back up features (in Booster Gold and Batman: Streets of Gotham respectively).

Also: The two 'Red Circle' books ("The Shield" and "The Web") had their plots wrapped up in the current "Mighty Crusaders" mini-series!

Dollhouse: Miraculously managed to get a second season in spite of low ratings because Fox was aware of the dedicated fanbase, but was cancelled after episode 2.04 aired. On the one hand, that seems premature; on the other hand, it gave the crew time to write and film a series finale instead of just a season finale.

Due South (CBS) had a wobbly history, including getting canceled twice, but it aired four seasons and ended on its own terms.

Exosquad (USA): Note that they DID finish off a couple story arcs before the cancellation hit, so it could also count as a counter example. Its later cousin, Wing Commander Academy, fared far worse (13 eps, cut off right in the middle when USA Network pulled all of their Saturday morning cartoon lineup.)

For Your Lovenote (perhaps the most unusual example on this page as despite airing for 4 years on a major network not all that long ago, hardly anyone seems to have even heard of this show let alone remember it) was first aired on NBC and cancelled after six episodes, it was then picked up by The WB and managed to last for another four seasons. It was renewed in spite of suffering a 70% drop in ratings during the third season, though it's final years on the network were a bit spotty, as it frequently shifted schedules and came very close to being cancelled after the fourth season, and six episodes episodes of the fifth season(including the series finale and one christmas-themed episode that was held back from the fourth season) were unaired in the original run, though TV One later picked up For Your Love for reruns and the missing episodes were finally aired.

Freakazoid!: One of the best comedy cartoons of the 90's. Unfortunately, it was built on Parental Bonus, even though it was put on Kids' WB. Only got two seasons.

Friday Night Lights: A rather unusual example. After airing on NBC for two seasons, the acclaimed but low-rated show was saved from cancellation by moving to DirecTV's "101 Network" channel for three more seasons, with NBC itself re-airing the show each spring after the 101 Network run had ended.

JAG was first aired on NBC, and then canceled after the first season. CBS then picked it up partially because of its massive popularity in Australia, and ran it for another nine years, during which it became one of the most popular shows on television (and spawned the More Popular Spin-off, NCIS).

Kyle XY: One of ABC Family's most successful shows, which was canceled after its third season. And right when a dramatic twist regarding Kyle's origin is revealed! The producers soon after revealed what had been planned for later seasons. By no means a brilliant series, it was still head-and-shoulders above its competition. It had a sci-fi premise, stellar acting, and a great deal of maturity. To put it into perspective, Kyle XY died because it wasn't pulling in as much ratings as The Secret Life of the American Teenager.

La Femme Nikita (USA): The cancellation announcement was made suddenly at the end of the fourth season, with lots of Canon Fodder just hanging there. This prompted a massive fan campaign and there was a fifth "half season" to answer some of the major questions and give a Bittersweet Ending for some closure.

Moral Orel: The show made a nice ending, but the writers were forced to cut plotlines that would have come up in later episodes. They eventually had to compromise with a special that was somewhat of a prequel to the main series.

Noonbory And The Super Seven: Easily the best Saturday-morning show that CBS aired after the 2006 break-up with Nickelodeon, Cookie Jar yanked it out of CBS' Saturday-morning line-up after one season because it wasn't based on a big enough license. However, Cookie Jar decided to place it on one of their Syndication packages in October 2010. However, it was short-lived, as it was off the air AGAIN after only one season due to Cookie Jar cancelling its Syndication deals!

Northern Exposure: a quirk-fest that began as a mid-season replacement, not usually a recipe for success on network TV, nevertheless managed to air six seasons and rack up plaudits and fans.

NewsRadio was fast paced and witty, but suffered a lot of time slot changes by NBC and it never quite made it to the top of the ratings not to mention the death of an important cast member well into the series, and yet it managed to go on for five seasons.

ReBoot: Did well pretty much everywhere it aired, but ABC yanked it after two. It did well in Canada and on Cartoon Network for a third season, abruptly canceled upon edging out a fourth season three years later. Always seems to get a good break with talk of being uncanceled with a series of movies.

Samurai Jack, after an abrupt cancellation with No Ending, is getting a second wind on Toonami. Time will tell if Jack gets to finish his quest this time.

Sliders: was cancelled after its first season, brought back as a mid-season replacement the following year after fan protesting, and aired two more seasons on Fox. The SYFY channel produced a fourth and fifth season before finally cancelling it.

Space Cases: Guess what other space series this show shares an actress with. Go on, guess. She got written out of the show after season 1, though... Too bad for Nickelodeon.

She was "written out" because she had a prior commitment to another Too Good To Last show, Disney Channel's Flash Forward (which had nothing to do with ABC's Flash Forward.

Stargate Universe was canceled midway through its second season with 10 episodes left; those are set to air as planned but it will not be getting a third season.

The Wire had five full seasons. However, considering the widespread acclaim (some even declared it the best series ever), its ratings were dismal.

Averted (for now) with the One Piece simulcasts. Before the first simulcast could even be done, real "pirates" stole the episode from FUNimation's servers and illegally distributed it, resulting in a four month freeze before it finally came back and started for real. In fact, this led to Funimation instituting new security measures.

Young Justice was a particularly loved series but was killed after its second season after Cartoon Network kept hiatusing the series during that time frame. A three year campaign from fans ultimately brought the two seasons to Netflix and lead to Warner Brothers and DC deciding to revive the series for a third season, with rumors stating that it might be being released on Netflix.

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